Birchwood Gives Options for Water Restrictions

January 30, 2014

Metal finishers facing water restrictions now have a great new option for the black oxide process from Birchwood Technologies. Now it is possible to operate the In-House Tru Temp black oxide system while utilizing almost no rinse water. The Near-Zero Water Recycler allows for re-using the rinse water in the process line, reducing water consumption by 99 percent. For black oxide users in water-restricted areas, this is huge - it means they can continue critical metal finishing operations while observing tight water usage guidelines.

Water restrictions are now under serious consideration for much of the Western United States due to a severe seasonal drought outlook from the National Weather Service. The drought forecast is for most of 2014 and spans the entire West Coast and as far east as Minnesota down through major areas of Texas. Compounding the water shortage problems are last year’s severe drought and wild fires throughout the region. Industrial users of large amounts of water including metal finishers are now evaluating water conservation options including the Near-Zero system from Birchwood Technologies.Where water use is under scrutiny, the Near-Zero Water Recycling System is easily installed on a new Tru Temp line, or on an existing line as a retrofit. It can make the difference between successful in-house blackening and no blackening at all.

Putting it into perspective, a normal 100-gallon Tru Temp black oxide process line utilizes three flowing rinse tanks, each utilizing about two gallons of water per minute. When operated for one shift per day for a month, the total water consumption is about 63,000 gallons – all going to the city sewer as non-hazardous discharge. Though most users find that the cost of water/sewer is normally low, a flowing rinse system may not be a viable option in water restricted areas.

The Near-Zero Water Recycling System allows the user to recycle and re-use the rinse water in the process tanks for about a month. Then the Near-Zero filter media is changed, and all three rinse tanks are purged and re-filled with fresh water. A 100-gallon size tank line would require about 600 gallons of water each time the system is purged – a 99 percent reduction in water usage.

The Near-Zero Water Recycling System is designed for Tru Temp process lines up to 200 gallons in tank size, and is completely pre-engineered for fast setup. The system can be integrated into most Tru Temp tank lines in only a few minutes.

The Tru Temp in-house process produces Mil Spec/RoHS compliant black oxide finishes, with a 30-minute turnaround time. The Tru Temp bath operates at 200°F and forms a non-dimensional, high quality black magnetite finish on all types of tooling and machine components.Because the process uses a short cycle time, it streamlines part movement, provides better control of finished part inventory and enhances ISO accountability, giving the user a “same-day turnaround” capability to satisfy key customers.